True North Initiative: News Scan 08 04 17

TOP STORIES

Quebec's resources wear thin as wave of asylum seekers swells

The asylum seekers arrive about a dozen by the hour at the end of a quiet country road in upstate New York, hopping out of taxis, extended passenger vans and private vehicles. They appear to range in age from seven months to 70 years, but they count more very young people than old. Many drag along heavy suitcases and are well dressed – right down to some parkas and tuques in the 30-degree heat, anticipating a life ahead. Twenty-eight of the 57 people who arrive between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Thursday come from Burundi, Syria and the Palestinian territories and said they used the United States as a mere transit point to Canada. The other 29 are originally from Haiti and, in several cases, have been in the United States so long the younger ones speak only English with an American accent. (Globe and Mail) (Montreal Gazette)

Many among the flood of asylum seekers arriving in Quebec over the past few weeks are Haitians fleeing the U.S., where President Donald Trump and his administration appear poised to strip status from those who have fled devastating natural disasters and a cholera outbreak. The spike in would-be refugees to Quebec is overwhelming the province to the point that officials opened Montreal’s Olympic Stadium to help temporarily shelter those arriving. (Global)

Over one hundred claims for asylum made daily in Quebec: Immigration Minister

As asylum seekers enter Canada in droves, Quebec and Ottawa are marshalling resources to cope with refugees. Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil said Thursday that up to 150 people are applying for asylum in Quebec daily. In June and July more than 6,000 refugees crossed into Canada via the Quebec border—a figure that comprises 35 per cent of all requests made by asylum-seekers in Canada. (CTV)

Drug smuggling is the biggest threat on the US-Canada border

The cross-border smuggling of illegal and regulated drugs is the greatest threat at the US-Canada international boundary, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security report released Thursday. The "most common threat to U.S. public safety along the northern border continues to be the bidirectional flow of illicit drugs," the Northern Border Threat Analysis Report stated. (Washington Examiner) (Washington Times)

Asylum seekers flee U.S. for Quebec, fearing their temporary permits will expire

New waves of asylum seekers are sweeping into Canada from the United States, forcing authorities in the province of Quebec to set up a network of temporary shelters, including a makeshift center at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium. As many as 150 migrants a day are making “irregular” border crossings from northern New York state into Quebec near the border station at Lacolle, and 70 percent of them are Haitians, fearful that the Trump administration will soon end their special temporary status in the country. (Washington Post)

Canada is facing a 'crisis' as a surge of U.S. migrants continue to cross the border illegally to seek asylum from the Trump administration, says the head of the union representing Canadian border services agents. For the past two weeks, government officials estimate that Quebec has received about 150 new claims every day. Overall, they say Quebec has welcomed 6,500 asylum seekers between January and June 30, 2017. ​Government officials said they were prepared to add new shelters if needed and that everything was under control. (National Observer)

The proposal resembles policies in Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the United Kingdom. But despite that, it didn’t take long for the critics to weigh in. (Fox News)

Keeping Score: How Points Work in Trump’s Canada-inspired US Immigration Overhaul

Taking a page out of the Canadian playbook, President Donald Trump announced on a merit-based overhaul of the U.S. immigration system on Thursday. The Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act, or the RAISE Act, would refocus the U.S. immigration system on bringing in capable immigrants with a strong likelihood of assimilating. (Epoch Times)

OTHER STORIES (Domestic and International)

A year after ISIS supporter’s attempted bombing in Ontario, RCMP trying to reconstruct electronic device

On the afternoon of August 10, 2016, police confronted Aaron Driver outside his house in Strathroy, Ont. as he was leaving to carry out a bombing in support of the so-called Islamic State. Cornered, he triggered an explosion and police shot him dead. Almost a year later, two investigations into the terrorist incident are still underway, Global News has learned. Both the RCMP and the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario are continuing to examine aspects of the failed ISIS-inspired bomb plot. (Global)

Terrifying list of 173 ISIS assassins ready to carry out attacks in Europe is found in the ruins of Mosul

A terrifying list of 173 ISIS assassins prepared to carry out attacks in Europe has been found in Iraq. The list was found in a terrorist hideout in the shattered ruins of Mosul and includes names, photos and the country of origin of scores of fanatics. More than 130 of the fighters are from Iraq, but it also includes Tunisians, Moroccans and Jordanians as well as jihadists from Tajikistan and Saudi Arabia, according to German newspaper Die Welt. (Daily Mail)

Seeking refugee status: The process explained step by step

The number of asylum seekers crossing into Quebec seeking refugee status has tripled in the last two weeks, according to the province’s immigration minister, Kathleen Weil. Now that they’re here, how do the 150 individuals entering Quebec per day proceed? (Montreal Gazette)

Sanctuary City Mayor Welcomes Ilegals To Olympic Stadium

The mayor of Montreal is welcoming an influx of illegal refugees into his sanctuary city. Thousands of Haitian “asylum seekers” have flooded across the Quebec border from the U.S. over the last few months and Mayor Denis Coderre is promising full accessibility. In a Tweet, Coderre declared, “You can count on our full cooperation.” (Daily Caller)

Most Canadians oppose the decision of some Conservative MPs to appear in the U.S. media criticizing the federal Liberals’ $10.5-million payout to Omar Khadr, according to a new Nanos survey. Conservative MPs have been expressing outrage over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to approve the multimillion-dollar payment, which settled Mr. Khadr’s $20-million civil lawsuit against the government over violations of his rights as a Canadian citizen. (Globe and Mail)

Canadians’ personal data on the table in NAFTA negotiations

The personal information of Canadians will be on the negotiating table when North American free trade talks begin this month. The United States has served notice it wants an end to measures that restrict cross-border data flows, or require the use or installation of local computing facilities. It is among the many American goals for the coming NAFTA renegotiation spelled out by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. (CKOM)

Kelly Knight Craft is one step closer to officially becoming the next American ambassador to Canada. The Republican fundraiser's nomination was approved by the U.S. Senate Thursday afternoon in a unanimous voice vote. Knight Craft was one of 65 appointments voted on by U.S. lawmakers today, as they prepared to go on summer break. (CBC)

A leaked transcript of a Donald Trump phone call shows the president's private comments about trade with Canada, and suggests he had an overwhelmingly positive attitude about the northern neighbour as he took office. The purported remarks made in a private phone call from late January are every bit as flattering as the president's public comments just days later when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited the White House. (CBC) (Toronto Star)

More Mandarin than Cantonese speakers in Metro Vancouver: census

Cantonese was once upon a time the predominant language spoken in Chinese-Canadian households. That time is over, according to new census data. The number of Mandarin-speakers in Canada has surpassed the number of Cantonese speakers for the first time in the country’s history, according to 2016 census data released Wednesday. That's also true in the Lower Mainland, where there is a distinct difference in where the two linguistic communities live. (Metro)

A federal government public tender to purchase ammunition for the Canadian military is shedding more light on one Canada’s most secretive counter-terrorism international assistance programs. The tender notice posted on the government’s Byandsell.gc.ca website is for 1.2 million cartridges for “AK-47 type weapons.” The AK-47, which stands for Avtomat Kalashnikova model 1947 in Russian, is one of the world’s most mass-produced and iconic assault rifles. (Radio Canada)

Canada warns of imminent terror attack on Ghana

Travel warnings from the Canadian embassy, the US and the UK, indicating imminent threats of terrorist attacks in the country has moved minority members in parliament to demand immediate action from government to assure the safety of the public. The countries are pointing to an increase in pick pocketing, extortion from police officers at checkpoints and fraud in the West African country. Canada for instance has warned its citizens travelling to Ghana of an imminent terror attack in Ghana. (Ghana Web)

Why Afghanistan’s ambassador to Canada was called home

Less than a year into former Afghan MP Shinkai Karokhail’s appointment as Afghanistan’s ambassador to Canada, the Afghan embassy in Ottawa is a shambles and Karokhail has been called back to Kabul to explain herself. A diplomatic calamity has been averted and an investigation has only just begun, but it seems unlikely that Karokhail will be returning to Canada any time soon. Troubles at the embassy broke out into the open July 25 when a document surfaced on social media in Kabul which appeared to be a letter from Korokhail advising “retaliatory action” against Canadian diplomats in Afghanistan, owing to Global Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and her officials repeatedly refusing to meet her. Freeland’s office had been assured that the letter was fake—Karokhail has met with Freeland informally, and also with her officials, and with Status of Women minister Maryam Monsef and International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau. (Macleans)

Australia terror suspect 'planted plane bomb on brother'

A terror suspect in Australia tried to smuggle a bomb on to a plane by planting it on his unsuspecting brother, say Australian police. The plan was one of two alleged terror plots recently uncovered by authorities, who made several arrests across Sydney on Saturday. The suspects were allegedly aided by the so-called Islamic State (IS). (BBC)

Explosives flown in from Turkey, 'made into a bomb' and taken into Sydney Airport to blow up flight EY451... So how come NONE of our security services knew about terrifying ISIS-plot until two weeks after it mysteriously failed?

Australia was terrifyingly close to witnessing the nation's worst ever terror atrocity, with hundreds of people blown out of the sky on a routine Saturday flight to the Middle East, it emerged today. If the alleged ISIS-led plot had been successful, the Etihad jet would have been downed by a bomb unwittingly carried on board by one of the suspect's brothers. (Daily Mail)

Grand jury used in Trump-Russia investigation

The special counsel investigating claims of Russian meddling in the US election has begun using a grand jury in Washington, reports say. The move suggests Robert Mueller may be taking a more aggressive approach to gathering data on possible collusion with Donald Trump's campaign team. (BBC)

EDITORIAL AND OPINION PIECES

Mark Bonokoski: 'Welcome to Canada, have a nice day'

When a former major league baseball stadium has to be expropriated to handle the influx of illegals entering Canada from the United States, the crisis is no longer pending. It has arrived. Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, built when the city hosted the money-losing summer games in 1976 — hence the double entendre nickname of the Big Owe — has been transformed into a shelter to house the growing hundreds, now mostly Haitians, who are slipping across an unmanned border crossing in Quebec. Many likely are trying to get to Canada before U.S. President Donald Trump orders them deported once the deadline ending temporary protection ends in January. (Toronto Sun)

Here at The Rebel, we have been reporting on the issue for some time but just as we predicted, the numbers are increasing dramatically over the summer. And now, these fake refugees are being given shelter in Montreal's Olympic Stadium because there is not enough room elsewhere. (Rebel)

Tarek Fatah: Pakistan, a nation of never-ending turmoil

Friday in Pakistan is considered a holy day, but there was nothing holy about the military-judicial coup of Friday, July 28. It overthrew the unstable nuclear nation’s 19th prime minister – not one of whom has completed a full term in office. Since its creation by the departing British in 1947, unelected civilian and military dictators have governed Pakistan, sometimes with a veneer of legitimacy. (Toronto Sun)

Lorrie Goldstein: Morneau’s tax changes provoke a firestorm

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau would like Canadians to believe sweeping corporate tax reforms proposed by the Trudeau government are simply about making rich people pay their fair share of taxes. But judging from the reaction of small business owners and professionals such as doctors, lawyers, accountants and others, the Liberals may be in for a bigger battle than they anticipated, before they introduce enabling legislation this fall. (Toronto Sun)